Winter Olivia & Hali Hammad

Category: .Politics.

I haven’t written a blog post in a very long time. I have recently dealt with something that no parent should ever have to experience. I am not ready to write about what happened as I am just trying to keep my shit together and not off myself. Maybe one day I will open up about it, but for right now I cant.
So to keep my mind off things I will write about things that get me fired up. If you been reading my blog you already know that my blog is low-key a political blog disguised as a mom blog 😀 (I hope you have been reading but if not, feel free to browse older posts 🙂

Can we talk about America for a moment? Would that be okay? It seems hard to even figure out where to start given the constant shit show we have had to sit back and watch since 2016. Have you been watching closely? Do you see what’s going on? Something dark is happening in this country and it is so complex with so many layers it is hard to even focus our attention on anything.
So if you are having American Shit Show Induced ADHD let me lay it out for you:Children: infant to teenagers are being ripped from their parents arms by ICE. Let that sink in, mothers are being ripped from their children and sent off to their native land with no assurance that their babies will be safe or properly taken care of. Imagine that, you spend nine months sacrificing your body for this tiny human that you could not imagine life without and one day an ICE officer grabs your precious, defenseless baby and hauls you away in a van. Could you imagine? No, you couldn’t because what I just described is unimaginable. Imagine coming to this country to give your children a better future only to have those children stolen from you? Because that is what is happening people! These children are legit being kidnapped from their parents.
ICE is losing these children! To make matters worse, these children are getting lost, no not lost in the system, they are literally being lost! It is reported that some 1,500 children of undocumented parents who have been deported have been lost! No one knows their whereabouts. ONE. THOUSAND. FIVE. HUNDRED. Babies, small children and teenagers MISSING! What is happening here is an atrocity.
PBS has confirmed that some of these missing children have been released to human traffickers. HUMAN. FUCKING. TRAFFICKERS! I do not care where you are on the political spectrum, you know this is downright inhumane. And yet, there are still some who try to justify this outright atrocity. For example, White House Chief of Staff John Kelly was quoted “Family separation is a tough deterrent.” Are you kidding me, John Kelly? What a shameful thing to say! But America has been ripping babes from the arms of loving mothers since slavery was legal in the country. It was a crime against humanity then, and its a crime against humanity now!
You see, one topic: deportation, many layers. This is part of the problem, there are so many complex issues plaguing this country at once its hard to know how to help fix the problem.

Next set of issues: GUN CONTROL
I am a veteran, I am trained to fire pretty much every weapon out there. I believe in Americans right to bear arms, however, I am also a human being and a mother, so I am torn on the issue. I want people to be able to exercise their constitutional rights but I don’t want innocent children caught up in the crossfire that our constitutional rights give us. So what do we do? Because what we have been doing is clearly not working, and if you don’t believe me google the statistics for yourself.
Since the first mass school shooting committed by 55-year-old Andrew Keyhoe in 1927 (Bath School Massacre) there have been 333 fatalities from school shootings. Children who went to school and expected it to be a normal day had their lives tragically cut short due to gun violence. Is it fair? No, but this is the reality. It has gotten to the point where a child at a recent school shooting tearfully shared her feelings that it was bound to happen eventually at her school. Do you grasp the emotional damage this is having on every single student in America? Children who have yet to experience gun violence at their school have come to the conclusion that they could be next. America’s youth are sitting ducks and no one in charge wants to make any meaningful change.
Is it the guns or is it psychotropic drugs overly prescribed to America’s youth? Another layer to this is we’re having trouble as a nation to figure out why we are the only country on this earth with this problem, it is an American issue. But it is not hard to make the connections, everything needs to be overhauled and analyzed, from the medical system in place in this country to gun laws, restrictions to responsible gun ownership and more safety precautions in schools. Growing up in the “hood” my schools all had metal detectors in them, why? Because our student body mostly consisted of Hispanics, African Americans, and children of immigrants, you see we grew up in the era where we were wrongfully called Super Predators. But as statistics show People of Color are not the ones committing these vicious mass shooting attacks; it’s White Males they are the real Super Predators. And yet, If the shooter does not commit suicide after taking the lives of others he is almost always taken into custody without incident, weird huh? A black man will be gunned down for having a cell phone in his hands, but a white boy who killed multiple victims gets the white glove treatment from the police. America treats guns better than we do the victims. America will vilify an unarmed black man after murdering him in the media, and on the other hand, it will create a narrative of bullying, isolation and family trouble for a White mass murderer.

I don’t know what can be done about these issues but I do know that every day I kiss my children, hug them, and tell them I love them before I send them off to school. Because in reality; the way things are going… my child’s school may be next. I don’t want to think about it or accept it but unfortunately gun rights and money are more important to this country than our children, This is America.

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I have taken a back seat to politics on my blog because I was simply exhausted from all of it. My blood pressure couldn’t take it, and the administration would piss me off every day. But I got time today.
I am OUTRAGED. I am outraged that the media is re-branding racists as “Alt-Right,” I am outraged at how many Nazi apologist I know.I am outraged because like the late Heather Heyer had posted on her social media, I AM AND HAVE BEEN PAYING ATTENTION. I am mad, and I have been mad since this country allowed Trump to continue to run after he continually showed his true colors to us. It was like half of the country was on Xanax and kept dozing off when Donald Trump would do something out of line.
But you know what really pissed me the fuck off today? Watching Donald J. Trump the President of the United States use this terrorist attack from White Supremacist / Neo-Nazi’s and shamelessly plug one of his businesses during a press conference where he was talking about Charlottesville.
Maybe; if you weren’t paying attention. Let me tell you what happened: at the end of yesterday’s press conference where reporters rightfully so were grilling 45 on why he waited so long to denounce Neo-Nazi’s. Little Donald went on the defense and claimed that he “wanted to make sure, unlike most politicians, that what I said was correct. Not make a quick statement.” Now If you know Donald J. Trump the way, most of Americans, heck the world knows him by now, you know that this statement like 96% of the statements he makes is full of shit. This guy is known for shooting off at the mouth with his little twitter fingers without facts on issues like President Obama’s birth certificate to him weighing in on Rob Pattinson and Kristen Stewart’s relationship. So to hear him say that he wanted to analyze all the data and make an informed statement on the matter just sounds like an excuse. So if I am playing devil’s advocate I could say that yes, maybe 45 is learning and is trying to make an effort to sound more educated and more poised as President but on the other hand, you have to wonder, why now? Why is this the issue Little Donald decided to wait to speak on? For me it’s just The Don showing his ass again, this is who he is.
I have come to expect this type of despicable behavior from our Man-child President. But what I wasn’t expecting was the self-proclaimed Deal Maker to shamelessly plug one of his businesses while making statements on the loss of human life.

If you didn’t catch how he used this moment to advertise his brand here is how it went:

Reporter: President Trump will you be going to Charlottesville?

Trump: I actually own one of the largest winery’s in the United States and it’s in Charlottesville.

He is not allowed to do that as commander in chief. But hey, aparently no one cares.

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I am just tickled. The FBI is investigating Donald Trump, there was no evidence of wiretapping, Tomi Lahren got suspended AND its the first day of Spring!
In case you have been ignoring the news (I know I want to ignore the news too sometimes. However, I love reality TV and at this point the never ending shit-show saga that is the Trump administration is almost more entertaining than Love and Hip Hop. But then I remember that the news is actually real (Despite what our small handed leader says.), and I get depressed again. Anyways, if you have been ignoring it here is what you missed:
The FBI director James Comey said in sworn testimony to the House Intelligence Committee that the FBI launched an investigation into 2016 Trump campaign’s links with Russia in their efforts to intervene in the presidential election.
Comey also refused Trump’s claim that President Obama wiretapped Trump Tower during the election, “There was no evidence.” No shit, we all knew the truth, but I am glad they are calling him out. They are letting Little Donald know in front of the whole world that when you spread lies about someone, it only makes the person spreading the lie look bad.
“The Department of Justice and Trump administration must allow Director Comey’s investigation to move forward without any interference, meddling, or political pressure of any kind whatsoever,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said.
This historic investigation could potentially open Pandora’s box for the Trump administration and spill all of the tea. And I will be right here like:
Speaking of taking seats, what’s her name? Tammy Lahren right? Tomi, that’s it, she was forced by TheBlaze to have a seat for, guess what? HAVING AN OPINION THAT DIFFERED FROM THEIRS!
Yup that is right, the conservative darling is getting the cold shoulder for statements she made on The View. ICYM The View, Lahren said that she is Pro-choice and called Pro-life conservatives hypocrites saying: I can’t sit here and be a hypocrite and say I’m for limited government, but I think the government should decide what women do with their bodies. Sheesh, if only there were a movement out there of women fighting to make sure that Tomi Lahren’s could keep her abortion rights. If only there were like a March millions of women, showing up and taking a stand for her right to be Pro-choice. I wonder if Tomi’s stance on sexism will change if she gets fired from The Blaze. I wonder if she will take her own advice: that all she will need to do is work hard to succeed as a woman in America. It’s almost as if she didn’t realize that she was accountable to the same people who were paying her to bash women in the first place. Oh no, no, no, no Tomi, you didn’t realize the way this patriarchy thing was built? No woman is immune, not even you Tomi. I am sorry you had to learn the hard way. But, it’s okay if you are ready Tomi, my friends in the feminist community are willing to welcome you in and show you a thing or two.
Be ready for some juicy articles to come!
-Winter Olivia

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The day of the election I made it a point to grab my three children, dress them up, and take them to the polls. I wanted show them the importance of exercising their right to vote. As a woman I take my rights to vote seriously. I was so proud to take my little girls into the voting booth and have them press the button to vote for the first time ever in history for a female presidential candidate! In my heart I believed that America was ready for a Madam President and that Donald Trump was purposely put in the running as an alternative by the powers at be to give Americans no other choice other then to vote for a woman. During this long and ridiculous race to the White House I truly believed that there was no way an outright racist, sexist bigot, sexual predator would ever be entrusted with America’s secrets and be allowed to run this already great country. I believed that the good guy (good girl in this case) would always end up with the win.

A little back story: when I was pregnant with my first child I was stationed in a foreign country while serving in the Army. My daughter was not born in the United States. My children are aware of the fact that she was born overseas and it was never an issue to them until the morning after election night. I stayed up all night watching the results of the election in shock. I woke my girls up and told them to get ready for school. The first thing out of my youngest daughter’s mouth was “Is Hillary the president? Did she win?” I had to tell her the truth, “No baby she didn’t.”

I was woefully unprepared for her response. Her six year old face changed from excited to sorrow. She began hysterically crying. I tried to hug her, and asked “Baby why are you crying?”

She looked up to me with her big dark brown eyes and said “I don’t want my sister to be sent back!” and began to wail with tears.

I sat there in shock. I had never discussed Trump’s policies on immigration with my children, nor do I have cable TV in my household. I thought my children were sheltered from Trump’s hurtful rhetoric. I was unaware that my children’s peers at school, were watching, paying attention, and talking about it at school.

I hugged my daughter again and told her that her sister was not going anywhere, that she was a citizen and had every right to stay in this country and not to ever worry about her sister leaving her side. It took a lot of convincing but she finally believed me and started to get ready to go to school.

This left me thinking. If my children, who I thought were blissfully unaware of the great divide plaguing this country were worried about the future of the United States. Then what were other kids around America thinking?

Later that day my twitter feed was full of tweets expressing horror of the all too common occurrences of hate crimes sparked by Trump’s triumph. It seemed like the world had lost it’s shit. Closeted racists let their confederate flags fly free and the hatred trickled down into our education system. So began the hate spiral of 2016.

Children, were now chanting- “Build that wall! Build that wall!” in their cafeterias. Bullying has become out of control since Election day. The Southern Poverty Law center has collected more than enough data of election related attacks nationwide and it shows that “more than 1/3 of the incidents tracked by the SPLC took place in k-12 schools.”

Royal Oak Middle School

As a mother I am alarmed. As a Latina, I am concerned for my fellow minorities. As a Veteran I am disappointed. As the matriarch of a bi-racial blended family I am outraged. As a woman I am furious that a man who once said “Just grab her by the pussy” is going to be in charge of THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. As a decent human being I am truly saddened that this country would entrust the future of the Land of the Free to an outright racist, bigot pig.

I try to teach my children to be good people, but with Trump winning the election by basically bullying his way into the White House, who knows what the kids will take from it.

I urge you, regardless of who you voted for. Please talk to your children about the dangers of their words. Teach them to have compassion for one another. While the Royal Oak Middle schoolers were chanting build that wall, some of their Hispanic classmates who have undocumented parents were crying because they are in true fear of their parents being taken from them. Tell them that years from now when they decide to get jobs, these images of hatred will be lurking somewhere on the internet for potential employers to see.

Please share your children’s reactions the morning after the election in the comment section!

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During this long election, my thoughts were always on the optimistic side: I believed that the country I fought for, that the six years I spent away from my family defending freedom mattered. That the daily misogyny I experienced in the military was isolated only to the military. Last night I found out that I was so wrong. Donald Trump’s victory has taught me one thing: that being a racist, sexual predator is more acceptable than being a woman in this country. Those of you who failed to vote, let this day be a lesson. For those of you who pissed away you’re vote on a third party, I hope your happy. Lastly, to the poor white Americans who voted for Trump, you have been conned.

I see these numbers below and can only think, what were you thinking, White Women?

And then I saw a tweet from @thecapitalv that said “What a privilege it must be to be able to look past a presidential candidate’s racism because it won’t affect you.” And understood.

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